Hello dear neglected readers! Many days and weeks have passed since the last update. Schoolwork, a little bit of gaming here and there and other stuff have prevented me from updating properly. I can say I really like Final Fantasy XIII and I'm eager to continue playing, but alas I'm late in my stuff, and I'm unfortunately the only one to blame for this.

Featured this week is Middletail's Tales of Destiny piece featuring a guy holding a lute. What interested me here is the palette. The bright red looks very good and the shadows are colorful - I'm tempted to bet there is some blue in there. However, I'm not sure all the colors look that good next to each other, especially the red in contrast with about any other color in the composition. This might have something to do with the saturation values. Other than that, the linework is clear and the shapes are well-defined, and the composition is dynamic.

Next up is yoakeDAX's Locke and Celes submission. The characters are very expressive, through their face and whole body, and this is especially true of Locke in the upper panel. The ordinary and simple background is perfect in this situation because it doesn't detract the attention from the dialogue and characters which are the point of interest in the submission.

Final Fantasy VI lovers will be happy with this week's update because TheApocrypha also has an interesting comic from the game prominently featuring Locke. It depicts an actual scene from the game but with a nice twist in the end. I like the illustration - the characters are expressive and detailed, and were drawn following the original artist's designs. This can be seen in Sabin and Locke's designs.

Regular forum member StormofSwords sent in an illustration of Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia. The character's outfit is well-detailed and colored, but the background's colors do not work really well with the character, in my opinion. The artist would benefit from using a more unified palette. I can see some shadows here and there, and while this is good, I cannot say it enough: don't be afraid to put some depth in your drawings, make those shadows darker! A good way to add shadows is to use a cold color instead of black. For instance, a dark blue will do an awesome job. Not only will your drawing be richer in terms of colors, it will be much more contrasted. Thank you for your submission and please send more!

MistyRydia is back after a long time away from us. This time, she offers a colorful interpretation of Rydia, standing in front of a green and purple background. I'd like to mention an important point here: were the sparkles absent, we would have nothing to balance her lips' color. Although it can be used for contrast, sometimes it is better to balance the colors in the composition. That said, witty readers will tell me that the flower in her hair is the only blue element in the picture (except for her eye). I agree. It is also the only element with shading. All this is probably why it's one of the first things you see when you look at the picture. While the drawing is very nice, I would love to see the whole thing with a bit more shading.

This covers Fan Art for this week. Lucky readers get three comic updates this time around. Our heroes finally make it to the Figaro caves and start exploring. Who knows what await them in there? Thank you for reading, and sorry once again for the lack of updates. It has been roughly a month since my last one. Or exactly. You decide.

Maxime Viventi